Editor's weekly: BlackBerry vacations

How ironic that as soon as I decided to write my weekly email about BlackBerrys mine stopped working. But I guess it made me appreciate just how attached Ive become to my handheld office.

Indeed, I have to confess that I never go on holiday without packing my BlackBerry so you can imagine how I felt when my boyfriend tried to flush it down the lavatory!

Seriously, I personally think the BlackBerry is a great invention as it offers great flexibility enabling me to work as and when it suits me and most importantly be away from the office and still stay in touch with my colleagues and contacts just in case that all important story breaks.

But it seems Linklaters disagrees. As we report this week the magic circle law firm has told its partners and associates to leave their portable wireless devices at work when on holiday (see story). The move is designed to improve associates work-life balance.

As you would expect the story has attracted plenty of comments from our users. Some are quite comical for instance the post from A Clerk who claims they look forward to diving into the hotel pool with their Blackberry strapped to their Speedos in its waterproof case.

Other comments, however, have been more scathing with claims that the move is linked to the credit crunch. Perhaps Linklaters has been looking at its mobile bills and has seen how much they spend on roaming charges which may or may not be for personal use! The credit crunch really is affecting everyone, writes Sebastian Cargutt. While another poster claims: I think it's more to do with the costs associated with everyone checking their personal e-mails, Facebook accounts and surfing the web whilst abroad - I'm sure that's not cheap to fund in these 'credit-crunching' times!

Whether you agree or disagree with the above comments its definitely made me think twice about the relationship I have with my BlackBerry. So perhaps Ill leave mine at home when I travel to France in a few weeks and just stick to packing my bikini.

husnara.begum@lawyer2b.com

PS dont forget to find out how our mole Chris Snell is doing as he leaves the corporate world behind him and moves to The Temple.